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A U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle passes a Texas Department of Safety vehicle as they both patrol along the Texas-Mexico border, Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014, in Mission, Texas.

AUSTIN – House budget writers on Tuesday outlined the scope and cost of their chamber’s prevailing plan to enhance law enforcement efforts along the Texas-Mexico border.

The House’s proposal would, among other things, send 250 additional state troopers to the border in the next two years. And it would cost about $97 million over that period to ramp up the state police, hold special training academies and add some other assets.

So now the overall price tag for the House’s border security spending plan is about $500 million over the next two years.

“Border security is a top priority for the House,” said Rep. John Otto, who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. “And it is [our] job … to make sure that we achieve this priority in the most efficient and effective way possible.”

They touted bipartisan support and wide-ranging goals. Officials said it would include sending more state police to the border, strengthening penalties for smugglers, building southbound checkpoints near the border and establishing a border prosecution unit.

But the plan didn’t have a cost estimate – or a clear explanation of how it would jibe with the $400 million pitched for border security in the House’s initial budget.

The House Appropriations Committee invited Steve McCraw, executive director of the state Department of Public Safety, to talk on Tuesday about what resources the agency needed at the border and how would be the best way to provide that assistance.

McCraw said the 250 additional troopers along the border was a realistic goal, so long that lawmakers also approved 10-hour work days for state police. He told lawmakers that the department has to be “candid about what we can and can’t do.”

To help do that, the House proposes funding over the biennium six special academies aimed at those who are already certified peace officers. At $13.7 million per each academy, that covers the bulk of the additional costs being added to the House plan.

The setup would provide the force with more experience – and create higher salary opportunities for new troopers. Regular public safety department academies could then be more focused on filling attrition, officials said.

The beefed-up House border security plan, which assumes the National Guard’s extended stay along the border will end, is still cheaper than others being debated.

The Senate’s base budget sets aside $815 million over the next two years for border security, while Gov. Greg Abbott’s proposed budget recommends spending $735 million in that time period to enhance law enforcement efforts along the border.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson speaks to the National Governors Association in Washington on Sunday, Feb. 22.

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson questioned the need for Texas to send National Guard troops to the border, asserting Tuesday that the crisis abated by the time state leaders reacted last summer.

“The high point of the … unaccompanied kids crossing into South Texas last year was June 10th,” Johnson told a small group of reporters at the White House, suggesting that Texas officials, particularly then-Gov. Rick Perry, claim too much credit for tamping down the influx of migrants.

“I don’t know what role the Guard played” three months after the peak, he said.

Perry, who left office last month, ordered 1,000 guardsmen to the border under Operation Strong Safety in late July. The troops began arriving in late August.

AP Photo/Eric Gay, File

In this June 25, 2014, file photo, immigrants from Honduras and El Salvador who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, are stopped in Granjeno, Texas. If lawmakers in Austin have their way, the Texas National Guard will be staying at the border at a cost of $12 million. But is it worth it as the number of illegal immigrants crossing from Mexico continues to dwindle.

By then, Johnson noted, the number of people crossing the border illegally – many of them unaccompanied minors from Central America, “had already dropped dramatically…. By mid-August it was down to very low levels, and it pretty much stayed that way.”

Perry, jockeying for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination, regularly reminds voters about his efforts to beef up border security, to bolster his own image and blast the Obama administration.

Johnson defended the federal response last summer.

“We expanded our detention space. We surged resources, people and equipment down to the southern border. We cranked up prosecutions of coyotes [smugglers]” along with a public messaging campaign, and flights taking would-be immigrants back to Central America. “We did about 10 different things.”

In any case, he added, “A lot of illegal migration is seasonal. It creeps up in the spring, it spikes in early summer, then it starts to drop off when it gets really hot,” making it hard to say how much impact the Texas Guard deployment had.

On other topics, Johnson:

Complained that Congress hasn’t approved funds for the extra border security. He covered costs by diverting hundreds of million of dollars from a disaster relief fund. Fortunately, he said, the weather cooperated last year. But he added, it’s no accident that apprehensions at the border hit a three-year low in January. Extra security was added, “which we need Congress to pay for. If you want a more secure border, that’s not free.”

Warned of dire consequences if Congress allows DHS funding to expire at midnight Saturday. Some Republicans want to cut funding needed to implement executive actions issued in November, shielding up to 5 million people from deportation. “If Congress wants to have a debate about immigration, we should have the debate about immigration,” he said. But “it’s bad politics to leverage the immigration debate to the budget for homeland security for this nation.” At least three-fourths of the DHS workforce would have to work without being paid until the stalemate ends, because they’re engaged in law enforcement, border security and other critical functions. Some 30,000 workers would be furloughed. That, Johnson said, could hamper efforts to combat cybersecurity, and to monitor terrorists and bad weather. Most of the workforce at the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be furloughed. Grants to local and state law enforcement would be delayed. “It’s like driving across country on 5 gallons of gasoline at a time and you don’t know where the next gas station will be,” he said.

Warned that New York City could face extra danger. “A shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security has real consequences to homeland security and public safety. Period, end of sentence,” he said.

Argued that public perceptions don’t match reality on border security. He cited a Pew survey from mid-2013 that found 55 percent of Americans believe illegal immigration is worse. In fact, the number of apprehensions at the border has dropped from about 1.6 million in 2000 to 479,000 in fiscal 2014 – and that was up from the previous year. “The numbers are a fraction of what they used to be,” he said.

Governor-elect Greg Abbott shook hands with Speaker Joe Straus, as Lt. Gov.-elect Dan Patrick watched, on first day of the session last month. The three Republicans' interpersonal dynamics are being closely watched for signs of harmony or fissures.

There was a lot of talk in Austin in the past two weeks about how Gov. Greg Abbott, as commander in chief of the Texas Military Department, faced a big decision on whether to keep the National Guard at the Texas-Mexico border beyond next month.

On Tuesday, Abbott seemingly decided in the affirmative — to extend the Guard’s deployment.

But a casual observer could be forgiven for saying that then-freshman Republican state Rep. Matt Schaefer of Tyler effectively made that decision Dec. 1.

That was the morning Schaefer appeared in person before the Legislative Budget Board, an influential group of 10 lawmakers. Schaefer pleaded for the board to add $30 million to state funding of a high-profile border surge. That way, he said, hundreds of the 1,000 troops originally called out by Gov. Rick Perry last June wouldn’t be sent home prematurely.

Rep. Matt Schaefer

“From every conversation I’ve had, they are effective” as a deterrent to unauthorized crossings, he said. “When you send 800 of them home by January and … by March dwindle down to basically nothing, you can’t have this debate in the Legislature and send them back. … They go back to their civilian lives.”

The 10 board members seemingly ignored Schaefer. They proceeded to vote — unanimously — in favor of an $86 million “budget execution” maneuver. It extended a surge by Department of Public Safety officers along the border through August but only paid for deployment of National Guard soldiers there through March.

Shortly before 6 p.m. on Dec. 1, though, Lt. Gov.-elect Dan Patrick picked up on Schaefer’s dissent. In a release, Patrick said he recognized that the budget execution method is cumbersome and can’t be amended instantly. That requires negotiations with the governor. But Patrick echoed Schaefer and said the Guard’s border presence should’ve been fully funded through August.

“We should not be cutting back on funding for the National Guard at this critical time,” Patrick said. “I will address this issue immediately upon taking office in late January so we can keep the National Guard on the border.”

Last week, Patrick held a press conference, attended by many Republican senators. He complained that the number of troops at the border had dwindled to just a few hundred. He promised $12 million more to keep the Guard on the border through May. He also said he expects additional funding to maintain the presence for up to two years.

Flash forward to this week. From all appearances, Schaefer and his personal “force multiplier” — that would be the new lieutenant governor and eight new, tea party-backed GOP senators — have boxed in Gov. Greg Abbott and Speaker Joe Straus on the Guard issue.

If you review Abbott’s border security platform from last year’s campaign, it says nada about the Guard. If you heard Straus’ remarks at the University of Texas at Austin last week, you know that he’s no huge fan of policing — much less militarizing — the Texas-Mexico border at state taxpayer expense.

“We have, again, tripled our spending on border security in the last three sessions,” he told government professor Jim Henson. “What are we getting for that? How effective is it? … I hate to sound so frugal. But we can’t just keep tripling and doubling — it’s not sustainable. So we need help from the federal government. And we need a smart approach that is law enforcement driven … and not so much the optics of the military.”

Straus’ hesitancy, though, didn’t appear to faze Abbott as much as the possible wrath of his party’s staunch conservatives.

On Tuesday, Abbott pretty much made an open-ended commitment to keep the Guard on the border.

In his state of the state speech, speaking of the soldiers, Abbott said, “I ordered them to remain deployed on the border until my security plan is implemented.”

In his proposed state budget, Abbott asked for $183.8 million to continue the border surge for the next two years. That was quite a jump from his campaign platform last year, which estimated the price tag at $92 million.

Abbott spokeswoman Amelia Chasse wouldn’t say if costs doubled because of extended deployment of the Guard. Nor would she say how long the Guard would be needed. Abbott and Chasse have acknowledged it could be at least three years before DPS can hire, train and station the 500 additional state police troopers and Texas Rangers that the Republican governor wants at the border.

On Wednesday, Straus, R-San Antonio, dodged reporters’ efforts to goad him to criticize Abbott’s decision. The speaker almost sounded grateful that Abbott isn’t planning to keep the Guard on the border forever. Clearly, Straus’ doubts — and those of South Texas leaders, who insist the Guard deployment is wasteful and wrong-headed — haven’t moved state GOP leaders to end the Guard’s deployment anytime soon. Nor have the mild complaints of Maj. Gen. John Nichols, the top Guard official, who recently told House budget writers the months-long activation is straining the troops.

For now, if you want to know how long the Guard will be providing surveillance and support services in the Rio Grande Valley, here’s a suggestion.

Ask Matt Schaefer. In the House chamber, he’s at Desk 96 — third row from the back, center aisle.

Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, is touting the still-forming tax relief and increased highway spending in the Senate's initial version of the two-year state budget.

The Texas Senate has proposed an initial budget that emphasizes tax cuts, more highways and a doubling of state spending on border security.

Despite an influx of tea party-backed Republicans and its more conservative presiding officer, though, the Senate’s “base budget” actually would spend nearly $3 billion more than the House’s version would over the next two years.

Senators’ starting point budget would spend $205.1 billion in state and federal funds, compared with $202.4 billion in House GOP leaders’ base budget. Counting just general-purpose state revenues, the Senate budget would spend $101.5 billion versus the House’s $98.9 billion. In the current cycle, the state is spending about $95 billion in general-purpose state dollars, according to the Legislative Budget Board.

The details are still to be determined, Senate Finance Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said at a Tuesday press conference.

The two leaders said the Senate plans to grant $3 billion in school property tax cuts and $1 billion in business tax reductions.

“We want people to actually feel it,” said Nelson, R-Flower Mound, said of the school property tax relief.

“It’s pretty safe to say we’re going to do some homestead exemptions,” she said.

Patrick was more guarded, saying, “We’re looking at a lot of things.”

He mentioned possible repeal of the property tax on business inventories and a mechanism for “bringing down the value increases that are beyond the reach of many homeowners.” When asked, though, if he wants to makes it easier to trigger elections rolling back increases in local property tax bills, Patrick said he would defer to senators.

“It’s the senators’ Senate,” he said. “There are many ways to do that.”

Nelson said the Senate’s starting point budget would get much closer than the House’s to giving the Texas Department of Transportation the additional $5 billion a year it says it needs just to maintain current levels of traffic congestion.

AP Photo/Eric Gay

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick speaks after he was sworn into office last week.

In addition to no longer funding state troopers out of gasoline taxes and vehicle-registration fees, the Senate budget would include “a one-time dedication” to highways of $1.2 billion of sales tax collected on sales of cars and pickups, Nelson said. While shifting the motor vehicle sales tax to the highway fund is gaining in popularity, it would place a big dent in the general fund budget that pays for state school aid, state universities, Medicaid, prisons and other state government functions.

While the Senate budget would take advantage of increased property values to cover enrollment growth in public schools, it would plow about $2.1 billion more in general-purpose state dollars into public education than the House would — mainly because senators would have to offset school districts’ losses from newly proposed tax relief for property owners and businesses that pay the franchise tax. In 2006, the franchise tax was widened, to help pay for school property tax cuts passed that year.

Nelson said the Senate budget would fund some of Patrick’s education priorities, such as more teacher training in the early grades and scholarships to attract new math and science teachers. She said the Senate version also would spend $815 million on law enforcement efforts along the Texas-Mexico border; make selective increases in mental-health spending, while maintaining those passed in 2013; add $50 million for women’s health; and increase slots for graduate medical education.

“It is compassionate,” she said of the Senate’s budget. “It meets our growing needs. And it remains true to the policies of fiscal discipline that have led to the Texas miracle.”

Patrick said the budget reflects priorities he and other Republicans ran on.

“We’ve made a strong statement in the budget,” he said, speaking of tax relief. “We’ve set aside the money and it’s there.”

WASHINGTON – Like a good driver, a good politician knows when to avoid a pothole. And Sen. Ted Cruz swerved clear of a deep one this afternoon.

At a speech to conservative activists at the Heritage Foundation, a member of the audience asked Cruz whether the Obama administration – by “releasing U.S. enemies from Gitmo and trying to put Gen. Petraeus in jail” – has justified the question “which side we’re on.”

David Petraeus, the former CIA director, is under investigation for leaking classified information to a mistress.

Cruz thought for a split second.

“This administration has a very difficult time differentiating good guys from bad guys,” he said, pivoting quickly to a set of allegations he’s more comfortable discussing – towit, that the Obama administration is too cozy with enemies such as Iran and too antagonistic with allies such as Israel.

Over the course of about an hour, the freshman senator ran through his critique of congressional Republicans who, in his view, are far too timid in standing up to the president and far too willing to abandon campaign pledges to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

Obamacare, he asserted, has wrought “devastation.” He called it a “train wreck” that has cost millions of Americans their jobs or access to doctors of their choice, and forced employers to roll back working hours.

Democrats were watching the speech, and were not amused.

The party’s press office noted that the rate of uninsured is near its all-time low. Health care costs are growing more slowing than ever. “Up to 129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions no longer have to worry about being denied health coverage” and the rate of young adults 19-25 without insurance has dropped from 30 percent to 21 percent since the ACA’s enactment in 2010.

“Nice try Senator Cruz, but unlike this new Republican Congress, the Affordable Care Act is helping people across the country — and it’s here to stay regardless of how many times Republicans try to dismantle it,” Democrats said.

Cruz, in his Heritage speech, ran through a 10-point policy agenda that includes shutting down the IRS. He would “padlock the building” and send all of the tax agency’s 110,000 employees to the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I say that somewhat tongue In cheek,” he said. But “if you swam across the Rio Grande and the first thing you saw was 110,000 IRS agents, you’d turn around and go home.”

WASHINGTON – The nation’s homeland security chief, Jeh Johnson, called on everyone to just calm down Thursday when it comes to rumors of jihadists sneaking across the border from Mexico.

It just isn’t happening – though Dan Patrick, the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor in Texas, claims it is, as do some other conservatives around the country.

“Those of us in public office, and in the media – whether in describing the border, ISIL or Ebola — owe the public informed, careful, and responsible dialogue, not overheated rhetoric that is certain to feed the flames of fear, anxiety and suspicion,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in Washington, in a major speech meant to make the case that the border is becoming more and more secure.

He hit head-on the claim making the rounds on conservative media in recent days that four people with suspected ties to Middle East terrorism had been caught crossing the Southern border. “

“These four individuals were arrested, their supposed link to terrorism was thoroughly investigated and checked, and in the end amounted to a claim by the individuals themselves that they were members of the Kurdish Worker’s Party – an organization that is actually fighting against ISIL and defended Kurdish territory in Iraq,” Johnson said, adding that each will be deported.

As Bob Garrett reported yesterday, Patrick has made the claim of jihadist infiltration across the U.S.-Mexico border central to a new ad attacking opponent Leticia Van De Putte as weak on border security.

On Wednesday night, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., asserted on Fox News that Islamic State militants have made it into the United States due to poor security at the border.

“I know that at least 10 ISIS fighters have been caught coming across the Mexican border in Texas,” Duncan asserted. “If they catch five or 10 of them, you know that there are going to be dozens more that did not get caught by the Border Patrol.

The Homeland Security Department disputed that, calling Hunter’s claim “categorically false.” So has the government of Mexico.

“Those declarations are neither based on real events, nor on credible evidence or intelligence. Mexican authorities have no indication whatsoever of the presence of groups or individuals of Islamic extremists in Mexico,” said Ariel Moutsatsos, spokesman for the Mexican embassy in Washington. He noted that U.S. and Mexican authorities exchange information constantly “and there is nothing to even suggest what Congressman Duncan Hunter stated.”

Update at 2:40 p.m.: A Republican congressman from California has claimed 10 ISIS “fighters” have been caught trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border into Texas, though an Obama administration official flatly denied Rep. Duncan Hunter’s assertion as “categorically false,” according to Fox News. Early Wednesday afternoon, Texas lieutenant governor candidate Dan Patrick, who used an August Fox News story to support his new TV ad on ISIS threats, tweeted about Hunter’s account, which the Californian said he got from an unnamed Border Patrol source.

In a new TV commercial that began airing Wednesday, Patrick cites an Aug. 29 Fox News story. The story raises the specter of an attack on the U.S., using illegal entry from Mexico, by the Sunni militant group ISIS, which some federal officials refer to as ISIL.

The fact checking news outlet Politifact, in this Sept. 17 piece, found no credible evidence to support some conservative Republicans’ claims such a terror plot is under way. Politifact quoted federal homeland security official Francis Taylor as saying “ISIL adherents across the globe” have talked up the possibility on social media accounts.

“I’m satisfied that we have the intelligence and the capability at our border that would prevent that activity,” Taylor said at a U.S. Senate committee hearing on Sept. 10. On the same day, Border Patrol official John Wagner told a U.S. House panel that extremists were more likely come to the U.S. on commercial airlines than through the southern border.

In his first ad of the fall campaign, though, Patrick uses the purported ISIS threat to set up a three-fold assault on his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio.

Democrat Leticia Van de Putte, also during last week's lieutenant governor debate

As unflattering still photos of Van de Putte flash on the screen, a narrator notes that she opposed Gov. Rick Perry’s recent deployment of National Guard troops to the border; supported an unsuccessful Obama administration plan this summer that would have financially assisted Central American governments; and sponsored a 2001 Texas law that lets certain undocumented immigrants pay in-state rates of tuition at public colleges and universities.

Patrick then reappears and links the purported threat posed by ISIS to state efforts a lieutenant governor can help influence.

“National security begins with border security and that begins with the Texas Rangers and National Guard,” he says. Patrick closes by repeating his pledge that if elected, he will make border security “my top priority.”

The 30-second spot — which Patrick spokesman Alejandro Garcia said is airing in Dallas, Austin, Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio, Tyler and Waco — stems from Patrick’s own fear that Van de Putte is gaining on him, Emmanuel Garcia said.

Despite public polls that show Patrick with a huge lead, “his team knows we are closing the gap,” the Van de Putte spokesman said. He said she “had a commanding debate win” last week in the two candidates’ only televised encounter of the campaign. Garcia also noted Van de Putte was endorsed by the Houston Chronicle, “Dan’s hometown newspaper.”

Garcia disputed Patrick’s charges that Van de Putte is soft on unauthorized immigration. He said she has listened to Rio Grande Valley residents and believes “militarizing the border won’t help a humanitarian crisis” created by an influx of unaccompanied child migrants from Central America.

As for sending millions in federal funds to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, Garcia acknowledged that Van de Putte supported President Barack Obama’s request for $3.7 billion from Congress. Congress has balked on approving the money, which mostly would pay for new detention facilities, conducting more aerial surveillance and hiring immigration judges and Border Patrol agents to respond to the flood of 52,000 children. It also would include $300 million to help repatriate the child migrants into the Central American countries and run media campaigns there warning that the U.S. won’t give the children a permit to stay.

“Senator Van de Putte believes we need to both address the root causes in Central America and security at the border, as well as the long-term solution of comprehensive immigration reform,” Garcia said.

On in-state tuition, Van de Putte noted — as she did in last week’s debate — that Perry, GOP land commissioner nominee George P. Bush and many Texas business leaders agree with her that it’s best to foster the immigrant children’s education and career preparation. Van de Putte tweaked Patrick for voting against the current two-year state budget, which increased funding for border security. Patrick has said that he voted against because, among other shortcomings, there wasn’t enough money devoted to more law enforcement efforts at the border.

“This ad … presents no real solutions for Texas,” Garcia said.

Patrick media consultant Bob Wickers of San Francisco, though, said Patrick has worked on the issue diligently in his eight years in the Texas Senate.

The most striking thing about the ad is how it reflects a changed political environment since last spring. Polls show that the influx of Central American children into South Texas, combined with spectacular advances by the Sunni militants in Iraq and Syria, have vaulted illegal immigration and border security to the top of Texans’ list of state concerns.

Patrick, a conservative talk radio host who enjoys tea party support, can keep highlighting his hard line on immigration. It may be October, but Patrick’s running as if he’s still in a hot GOP primary.

Detainees wait in Brownsville, Texas, in a holding cell at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility.

Immigration and border security have displaced education as the top issue facing the state, according to the eighth annual Texas Lyceum Poll.

In the nonpartisan poll, released Tuesday, 31 percent of adults said immigration or border security is the most important issue, compared with 11 percent who said education. Eight percent cited either jobs and unemployment or the economy.

The results ran opposite to voters’ ranking of national concerns, said the group’s pollster, University of Texas political scientist Daron Shaw. At the national level, 20 percent of adult Texans cite the economy and jobs as the top issue, compared with just 11 percent calling it immigration or border security.

“This is probably the most dramatic instance in which border security and immigration issues are dominating economic mentions — at least with respect to the state, not the nation,” Shaw told reporters.

The poll consisted of telephone interviews with 1,000 Texas adults that were conducted between Sept. 9 and Sept. 25. The margin of error was plus or minus 3.1 percent.

The survey tested attitudes on the recent influx of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children from Central America into Texas, after they made often-harrowing journeys across Mexico.

Texans clashed on whether the children should be returned to their home country as soon as possible, with 48 percent of respondents agreeing while 42 percent said they should be permitted to stay in the U.S. while awaiting an immigration hearing, even if it takes a long time.

Among the 666 likely voters who were interviewed, support for immediate return of the children jumped to 58 percent, with 37 percent saying the youngsters should be allowed to stay for a time.

July 15 pool photo by Rick Loomis/Getty Images

Immigrants who have been caught crossing the border illegally are housed inside the McAllen Border Patrol Station in McAllen. Detainees are mostly separated by gender and age, except for infants.

Along lines of party affiliation and racial or ethnic identity, the differences were even more stark. Among Democrats, 64 percent want the children to be allowed to stay, while 73 percent of Republicans favored returning them to their country as soon as possible. Among independents, who accounted for 22 percent of adults interviewed, sentiment was roughly equal: Forty-five percent want the children to stay; 44 percent, to leave immediately.

While blacks were fairly evenly divided among the two camps, whites and Hispanics were not. Among whites, 62 percent said the children should be returned to their home country, compared with only 28 percent who would allow them to stay. Among Hispanics, though, 58 percent supported letting them stay in the U.S. awaiting a hearing while 33 percent would send them home as soon as possible.

“Although the majority response sides with law and order, we do see that the attitudes of Texans depend on context,” Shaw said. “If immigration is framed in terms of caring for children, our willingness to compromise increases.”

The poll, a summary of which can be viewed here, also examined attitudes on abortion. Earlier this month, state Sen. Wendy Davis, the Democratic nominee for governor, revealed she had two abortions. One was after an ectopic pregnancy, which is commonly viewed as life threatening; and the other, after the fetus was found to have a severe abnormality known as Dandy-Walker syndrome.

By better than 3-to-1 margins, Texas adults said abortion should be legal if the woman’s health is seriously endangered or she became pregnant because of rape. For pregnancies resulting from incest, 68 percent supported allowing abortion as an option, while 24 percent opposed doing so. When there is “a strong chance of a serious defect in the baby,” 54 percent said a woman should be able to obtain an abortion and 31 percent said she should not.

“Most people, Republicans included, say women ought to have an abortion option under those circumstances,” Shaw said. “When you start talking about more choice-oriented, situational circumstances, support drops and you begin to see some of the partisan differences really show.”

For instance, when asked if it should be possible for a pregnant woman to obtain a legal abortion if she is unmarried and doesn’t want to marry the man, just 24 percent of Republicans agreed. Among both Democrats and independents, support was considerably higher — 44 percent — though still below a majority. Only about a third of all adults favored legal abortion if married women want no more children or the family is poor and says it can’t afford more children.

On the federal health care overhaul, the poll found 48 percent of Texas adults have an unfavorable opinion, versus 33 percent with a favorable attitude.

“Opinion is pretty static here,” Shaw said, noting the state results are comparable to national polls. “There is not a lot going on.”

On Wednesday, the Lyceum, a group of 96 people touted as “the next generation of Texas leaders,” will release horse race numbers in the statewide contests on the Nov. 4 ballot. Also divulged will be results of questions about Gov. Rick Perry and President Barack Obama, as well as about Perry’s recent indictment for coercion and misuse of his post in connection with a budget line-item veto threat last year.

Texas National Guard troops watch for illegal immigrant crossings near McAllen as a full moon rises over the Rio Grande on Sept. 8.

updated at 12:25pm with comment from Perry’s office and at 4:45 with Dewhurst comments.

WASHINGTON — The government of Mexico took Gov. Rick Perry to task on Thursday for sending National Guard troops to the border.

In a terse statement issued by the embassy in Washington, Mexico said it “deeply rejects and condemns the deployment.”

And it accused the governor of taking the actions to further his political ambitions. Perry has been a frequent visitor to Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina as he prepares for a second presidential run, in 2016.

“Mexico underscores that it is irresponsible to manipulate border security for political reasons,” the statement said. “…The unilateral measure taken by the government of Texas is undoubtedly mistaken and does not contribute to the efforts in which our two countries are engaged to build a safe border and create a solution to the phenomenon of migration. The measure will not lead to greater understanding between our societies, and it stands in opposition to the values and principles by which Mexico and the United States govern our bilateral relationship.”

Perry spokeswoman Lucy Nashed offered this response:

“Our borders should not be open and vulnerable to exploitation by ruthless criminals. The governor is focused on ensuring drug cartels and other criminals don’t get a free pass into Texas and the rest of the nation because our borders are unsecured. We look forward to continuing to work with Mexico to address illegal immigration and the tragedy of unaccompanied minors.”

AP Photo/San Antonio Express-News, William Luther

Gov. Rick Perry salutes National Guard troops at Camp Swift in Bastrop, Texas, on Aug. 13 after talking to them about their upcoming mission along the border.

Thursday afternoon, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst rejected the Mexican government’s input, calling it “offensive” on the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2011, attacks.

Mexico, he said, seems to want “Texas to throw open our international border to illegal immigration, trafficking in drugs and human lives, and potentially even terrorists who wish to harm America.”

He called the allegation of politics “insulting,” given that he and other Texas leaders have devoted more than $800 million over seven years to buy aircraft and gunboats to compensate for a shortage of federal investment at the border.

In late July, Perry ordered 1,000 guardsmen to the border to assist the Texas Department of Public Safety’s “Operation Strong Safety,” a border crackdown he says is necessary to compensate for federal inaction.

The guard members aren’t authorized to act as Border Patrol, but are deployed in support roles such as observation and tracking of illegal activity in the Rio Grande Valley. Perry has demanded a Guard deployment by President Obama for several years, but the administration has brushed aside the requests.

Critics of Perry’s move say the deployment is needless, because crime along the border is relatively low, and surge of Central American migrants over the last year — mostly unaccompanied children — has subsided and, in any case, those migrants were quickly turning themselves in.

ROCHESTER, N.H. – Gov. Rick Perry paid homage to James Foley today in the hometown of the beheaded photojournalist.

“This young man personified what courage is all about. He showed us sacrificial service. He went into dangerous parts of the world to shine a bright light in the dark places. It is a very important job that James Foley was engaged in,” Perry said at a fairground in Rochester, a short drive from Foley’s parents’ home.

He spoke to 200 or so people at a “Defend Freedom” Pork Roast run by Concerned Veterans for America.

Perry didn’t visit with the Foleys, saying he wanted to respect the family’s privacy.

“We all collectively mourn his death and all America stands with the people of New Hampshire in remembering this hero,” he said, pivoting quickly into a stern critique of the Obama foreign policy.

“America faces lots of problems abroad. A couple of years ago the president said that al-Qaeda was decimated.” He mocked President Barack Obama for calling ISIS a junior varsity terror group six months ago.

“In our absence in the world, chaos reigns,” Perry said.

It was the fifth of six stops for Perry during a two-day trip to the presidential testing ground of New Hampshire.

He hit hard on border security, and it was clear the crowd appreciated his tough talk. In particular, he used the appearance to rebut complaints Friday from the Mexican government that he was off base in warning that terrorists from the Islamic State, or ISIS — the brutal group that executed Foley — might be sneaking across the Rio Grande.

“Mexico is Texas’ leading trading partner so we strive to maintain this working relationship,” Perry said. But it’s undisputed that more than 60,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America have crossed into the United States from Mexico since last fall.

This he said, “is evidence that Mexico can do more to partner with us to partner with the United States and to secure that border… millions have crossed from Mexico into America in recent years” and the origins of all of them clearly aren’t known.

He called it “profoundly naïve” to think that a porous border doesn’t present an opportunity to terrorists.

As for Foley, Perry has been making similar comments throughout the New Hampshire visit.

staff/Todd J. Gillman

New Hampshire GOP chairwoman Jennifer Horn introduces Gov. Rick Perry at a rally Saturday in Stratham. Former governor and senator John Sununu, center, asserted that Perry's indictment is part of a Democratic effort to derail strong Republican candidates for president.

“There are a lot of heavy hearts around this state and this country… because of that young man,” Perry said Friday evening in Manchester, at a dinner hosted by the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity. “Sometimes people don’t think about these young men and women in the photojournalism business as being heroic. But many of them are. Serving in places around the world where there are brutal forces, in places where they may be the only real light that gets shined upon atrocities.”

“I didn’t know James Foley but I know he was a heroic figure,” Perry said. “It is people like him, it is that free press that is shining that light into the darkest corners, and it is a critically important job in the midst of places today like Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel, and Ukraine.”

Earlier Saturday, Perry appeared at a state GOP rally in Stratham, where state party chairwoman Jennifer Horn and former governor John Sununu depicted Perry’s indictment as a partisan attack.